So Long, Six-Year Itch

Back then, Skaneateles, Carthage and West Genesee lay claim to the Section III boys lacrosse championships. This year...well, Auburn could still do something about the Wildcats part, but the other two-thirds of the equation apply at this moment.

On a gray night at Coyne Field where the rain somehow held off, Skaneateles used a shower of third-quarter goals to end CBA's two-year reign at the top of Class C, while Carthage smothered Jamesville-DeWitt at the start of the Class B final and rode that great effort to dethrone the reigning state champs.

How fitting for the Lakers that, to win this championship, it had to conquer the two teams that won the five championships since Skaneateles last placed on top - LaFayette from 2003 to '05, then CBA in 2006 and '07.

The more appropriate concern, though, was how a team as young and feisty as Skaneateles would respond after all the excitement and emotion of its comeback semifinal win over LaFayette - especially since CBA had been so good in disimissing Homer.

As it turned out, no worries. Both teams were nervous at the start, stumbling into a whole week's worth of mistakes in the first two periods. That it got to 4-4 at the break was only due to Ben Ashenburg sparking the Brothers to three goals in 51 seconds (he scored twice and assisted on the other) and the Lakers answering with back-to-back goals from Eric Richards and Keith Buehler.

So it remained until the third-quarter Laker flood that decided this championship. Patrick Emmer scored to spark it, and within a span of six minutes Kelly Donigan and Oliver Moore both scored twice, with Tom Schoener also contributing a goal.

The battered Brothers, who had done so much with nine new starters under new head coach Mike Stagnitta, never recovered, and it ended 11-7. With a lot of underclassmen like Donigan, Moore and Buehler in key roles, Skaneateles might have been a bit ahead of schedule, but great teams don't wait their turn.

Carthage had to wait those same six years to make its climb back to the top of Class B. Right from the start this spring, the Comets had the look of a championship favorite with its high level of skill and the way it could defend, but playing up in the Frontier League can hide things like this.

When the Comets lost to J-D in a May 19 thriller, the Rams may have picked up the favorite mantle again. However, following a win over Whitesboro in the regular-season finale, J-D sat for more than a week before its narrow escape over Cortland in the Class B semifinals. It's fair to ask - did the Rams lose its sharp edge during that time off?

Maybe so - and even if they didn't, Carthage came to Coyne tonight with focus and purpose, with none of the nerves that J-D possessed.

For all practical matters, the game was decided in the first 18 minutes - where Carthage seemed to have the ball all the time. Zach Mulvaney and Rob Grimm won all the early faceoffs, and the Comets patiently possessed the ball, won every race for ground balls, and built a 5-0 lead - not enormous, but still effective.

J-D spent the remaining 2 1/2 quarters desperately trying to catch up. But it never got closer than four goals (on three different occasions), kept from a comeback by Carthage defenders like Jamie Grimm, Pat Gibbons and Dave Gallagher deflecting passes, and Kyle Gaebel making 16 saves, some of them superb.

The last time Carthage got this far, in 2002, it came within inches of a state championship, beaten 8-7 by Comsewogue. State teams in Class B have become more formidable in the ensuing years, but the Comets just might have the personnel - and attitude - to pull it off.